Colonization (21 page)

He sighed in relief. “Good, because I was so out of it I can’t even remember crossing much of this.”

He sounded as though he’d failed me. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You were losing blood. It’s not your fault.”

He pulled his mask back and smiled. I realized I missed seeing his whole face. All the stress around us melted away until it was just him and me. “I’m glad you had the strength to save me.”

“I’m glad you decided to help me in the first place instead of turning me in.”

“Can we get going?” Sirius yelled from behind us, sounding more annoyed. “This stretcher is getting heavier by the minute.”

“Of course. We’re just checking our coordinates.” Corvus looked toward me.

I pointed in the direction where I’d crashed the Landrover. “This way.”

Lightning cracked open the sky above our heads and an ominous current of wind blew down from the ridge, flinging back my hair.

“The storm! It’s caught up to us already.” Alcor’s voice trembled. He dropped the stretcher and Lyra shrieked. Alcor put his hands up to his bandaged head. “We’re too late.”

“Shut up!” Nova’s eyes seared like lasers. “You’re not helping.”

“We can still outrun it,” Corvus reassured him. “Once we get to the Landrover, we’re all set.”

“We’re not getting anywhere arguing,” Sirius shouted as the sky started to drizzle. “Come on.”

Corvus took Alcor’s place on the other side of the stretcher, and we ran faster than any of us had run before. The storm rode on our heels. Puddles formed in the chasms between crystal slabs and the terrain grew slippery. Just before I thought the crystal field would never end, vines clustered on the horizon. We neared the jungle’s edge.

Doubts set in as to where we’d left the Landrover. What if my estimation was wrong? The entire team relied on my poor memory, and I couldn’t let them down. I charged ahead in the lead, trying to recognize any of the crystal conglomerations. Every shard looked the same.

A gut instinct told me to sway right, and so I plunged ahead, calling out behind me, “Over here.”

The large crystal shard that had almost impaled me rose up above my head, pointing to the Landrover’s dashboard. Relief flooded my veins until I felt like I’d melt into a puddle. I’d found it. I almost kissed the hull with my lips.

Nova climbed through the last of the crystals. “We’re riding back in that?”

I pulled myself back together. “What did you expect? A shiny new Corsair?”

“It’s all wrecked up,” she spat out.

I used the most reassuring voice I could muster. “It’ll work.”

As the others caught up to us, I opened the hatch and climbed into the driver’s seat. Corvus had left his ID card in the main panel, so I touched the start screen and the interior lights flashed on. Sirius and Corvus loaded Lyra’s stretcher and everyone climbed in. Sirius took the seat beside me, surprising me. I looked back at Corvus, but he tended to Lyra, wiping rain off her face.

“You know how to drive this thing?” Sirius’s eyes widened with a new level of respect.

“Corvus taught me.”

His voice hardened into a growl. “I see.”

Rain hit the dashboard in a sheet. I turned on the wiper blades, and a sticky substance formed on the tips.

“What is that?” Nova lunged from the backseat, sticking her head between Sirius and me.

I knew exactly what it was, but my heart didn’t want to accept it. “It’s the microbes! We have to move.”

I pulled a lever and the Landrover lurched in reverse. I turned the steering wheel and we collided into the jungle. My brain worked overtime as I plowed through the vines at maximum speed and scoured the topography charts.

“How long will it take us to get back?” Alcor’s voice still trembled.

“I don’t know.” I tried to calculate how long it took us in the first place while driving at the same time.

“Twelve hours,” Corvus answered for me. “That’s if Annie can maintain this speed.”

“I’ll try. Everyone check your locators to see if they work. Once we clear the crystals, we should get a stronger signal. That way we can alert the colony before the storm reaches them.”

“What about us?” Alcor was having a mental breakdown right in the backseat and it made me even more nervous than driving under a poisonous rain while trying to navigate through uncharted terrain.

“Annie can out-speed the storm.” Corvus made it sound like I was a god. “She’ll get us out of this in time.”

Nova’s scoffing haunted me from the backseat. “We’ll see.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ladders

I drove forever and then kept going. My eyelids twitched and my hands hurt from squeezing the wheel, but I pressed on, flicking my gaze between the charts and the dashboard. The rain stopped, and I drove out from under the fingers of the storm. Although microbe-ooze no longer clung to the windshield, we’d have hours at most to evacuate the entire colony. I glanced down at my locator, but the device lay dead in my lap.

I thought everyone around me had fallen asleep until I heard Sirius murmur beside me.

“Annie, you’ve changed so much.”

“Not really.” I shrugged it off, feeling awkward. At least I had an excuse to keep my eyes on the path ahead. “I’m still the same girl you grew up with.”

“Really?”

The way he said it made me realize I wasn’t the same girl at all. I had grown in so many ways, and during the process I’d left him behind. He’d always led me ahead as if I had no direction, and I hadn’t.

My life had direction now, and I realized he wasn’t in it. Before I could respond, he slid next to me, so close our legs touched, and whispered, “You’re stronger now, more sure of yourself. You’ve done so much for the colony. You’re a hero.”

A few days ago I would have given anything to impress him. Now his intensity made me squirm. There was something fundamentally wrong about his attention. Why didn’t he like the old Annie?

“Sirius, I’m trying to drive.”

“Of course.” He backed away and leaned against the door. “You know, I’ve been thinking about the assignments. You were right. We should have gone to your great-grandfather and put in a request.”

My world had changed so much since that awful day in the corridor outside his family unit. He finally spoke the words I wanted to hear, but now I worried more about Corvus. What would he say if he knew I’d talked to Sirius about changing the assignments? We had created something so perfect, so beautiful, and I didn’t want Sirius ruining it.

I stole a look in the rearview mirror, but Corvus’s eyes were still closed. Alcor snored, Lyra lay motionless on her stretcher, and Nova curled up against the door frame.

“Nova hates me!” His whisper hissed across the dashboard, and I looked back to make sure he hadn’t woken Corvus.

“Shh!”

“She hates me,” he repeated, but this time softer. “I tried to get to know her. I really did. She thinks she’s too good for me, and now that I deviated from the mission, she won’t even talk to me.”

“I see.” I held my nose up. “So I’m your second choice.”

He wiped his face with both hands. “No, Annie. You’ve got it all wrong. I was just trying to follow the Guide, to do the right thing. I realize now, it’s always been you.”

Too bad it was too late. No matter how sincere his words sounded, I felt like a second choice, only good enough for him when I’d saved the colony and when beautiful Nova said no. Corvus had always stood by me, and I wasn’t about to jeopardize our relationship to give my heart back to Mr. Fickle.

“I no longer feel that way.”

Sirius leaned back. I glanced over to see shock etched on his face. “You don’t mean that.”

“I’m meant to be with Corvus. He’s done so much for me, and he never gave up on us. The more time I spend with him, the more time I want to spend with him.”

Sirius looked like he’d swallowed poison as he turned away from me. I’d broken the bond we had, and it was irreversible. I wanted to say something to comfort him, but anger edged my tongue and everything I thought of would make the situation worse.

A beep sounded from my lap, breaking the silence. The sound of clothing ruffled behind me as people stirred and woke.

“Shut off the alarm,” Lyra whined. “Just a few more minutes of sleep.”

“Lyra, we’re not on the
New Dawn
, remember?” Nova sounded annoyed.

“What’s that noise?” Alcor rubbed his eyes.

My heart quickened. The Landrover shuddered underneath me and the wheels ground to a halt.

“What’s wrong?” I pushed the pedal harder with my foot, but nothing happened.

“Did she break it?” Nova was always the supportive one.

“No.” Corvus stuck his head over my shoulder to read the gauges. “It’s beeping because it’s out of fuel.”

“What?” Alcor screeched.

“Stay calm and let me think.” Corvus peered out the windshield. “We’re got to be close. We could walk the rest of the way.”

“I’m not going out there with that storm coming.” Nova sat back in her seat. “We’re better off in here.”

Alcor’s voice rose. “With no food or water left? We could be stuck here for days.”

“I’d rather be stuck here and starve than have those microbes eat my brain.” Nova crossed her arms.

Corvus sighed. “I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

Meanwhile, the storm loomed closer. My fingers still clutched the wheel, and I pried them off. “We have to decide on something!”

While they argued in the back seat, Corvus dug in the rear of the Landrover. I wondered what he searched for that could possibly help us? Food, water, steel masks?

“Flares!” Alcor clapped Corvus on the back. “Genius.”

“Not really.” Corvus lifted the back hatch of the Landrover. “Just practical.”

I wanted to yell at him to stay under cover, but someone had to risk the rain to alert the colony and get us rescued. I just didn’t want it to be him. “No, wait. I’ll do it.”

“Stay inside, Annie.” Corvus sounded determined.

“He’s right,” Nova scolded me. “Corvus is much taller and has a better chance of firing it above the canopy.”

I fumed in my seat. Nova was pretty tall. Why couldn’t she go out?

She’s not as tall as Corvus
. I turned around and crossed my arms, slumping back into the seat. The sooner he got out there, the sooner he’d be able to come back in. “Fine.”

“If the storm reaches us, don’t come out and get me.” His words slashed my heart. I wanted to tell him I wanted him instead of Sirius right then, but some stupid fear of revealing my feelings in front of everyone held me back.

Corvus jumped out. We heard his footsteps on top of our heads as he climbed the vehicle. I watched through the dashboard sight panel, each moment squeezing more air out of my lungs. I regretted asking Sirius to change the assignments without even giving Corvus a chance, but mostly I regretted being a coward and not telling Corvus how I felt about him.

We heard three shots. The vines moved in the wind and the approaching storm brewed anxiety in my chest. “Come on, Corvus,” I whispered. “You’ve fired the shots, now come back down.”

Corvus’s boots clunked on the ceiling. He jumped off, and grunted as he hit the ground. I waited for the hatch to lift, but nothing happened.
Frickin’ quasars!
What is he doing?

I knew him by now. If he’d gotten infected, he wouldn’t come back inside. My heart thumped so hard it hurt. I couldn’t imagine going back to the ship without him, leaving him out in the jungle as he got sick.
I want to stay with him.

The hatch lifted, and my body collapsed with relief.

Corvus climbed back inside. His cheeks were flushed with exertion as he slipped back into his seat. “Let’s hope they saw it.”

***

The jungle vines moved above us, and I wondered if the storm had finally caught up. I stuck my face all the way up to the top of the windshield. Rope ladders fell through the canopy.

My voice rose above all the commotion. “They’ve found us!”

We piled out of the Landrover just as men in bio-suits climbed down the ladders. Three Corsairs hovered over us. I ran to the first man I could reach.

“Young lady, are you all right?”

I didn’t even answer his question. There wasn’t enough time. “There’s a storm coming. You have to tell Lieutenant Crophaven.”

“Hold on, now. We’ll get you all checked out first.”

“No, we need to evac!” I tugged on his bio-suit. “The storm will bring the same thing that made Ray and Amber sick.”

His eyes flitted sideways to the rest of the rescue team.

“She’s right,” Corvus said. “If we don’t get out of here, we’re all going to get sick.” Alcor and Lyra also persisted. I glanced at Nova, but her lips remained sealed.
Cold-hearted witch.

The rescuer nodded to another man.

“We should get out of here before the storm hits, either way,” his colleague suggested.

He nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Send a message to Lieutenant Crophaven to evac the colony.” I eyed his locator. The screen lay blank. They’d have to try the radio onboard.

“Will do, miss.” He nodded. “Follow me.”

They shuffled us into Corsairs, separating our group. Corvus helped Lyra onto a pulley while a member of the search-and-rescue team pulled me to the nearest ship.

“Wait!” I fought against him. “I want to be with Corvus.”

“We’re all going to the same place.” The man pulled me ahead. “We have to get you out of here.”

“Corvus!” I yelled his name, and he looked up and waved. “I want to go with you.”

“Climb.” The man instructed. “If what you say is true, then we don’t have much time.”

Tears stung my eyes as I grabbed the ladder and took the first step up. Nova gave me a shove to get going and once again I cursed all the reasons why fate stuck me with her yet again. Gritting my teeth, I climbed aboard and sat in the last row, slumping down into my seat restraints.

Nova took the seat across from me. “When we get back, I’m reporting you.”

Exhaustion consumed my anger, and all I could do was shrug. “Go ahead. Have fun.”

I closed my eyes to shut her out and sat back, hoping nothing happened to Corvus’s ship. The engines flared up, rumbling my empty stomach. My mission had come to an end, and I’d achieved everything I wanted. I’d saved Sirius and his crew, found the plant field behind the ridge, and informed the colony. I’d fulfilled Great-grandma Tiff’s expectations. Yet hollowness filled my body. So many problems were still unresolved. I’d told Sirius my true feelings, but Corvus had no idea.